Deckers Pledge $1 Million to Hopkins

Their gift to the $900 million fund-raising effort of The Johns Hopkins University and The Johns Hopkins Health System establishes the Alonzo and Virginia Decker Venture Capital Fund in the university's School of Continuing Studies.

The fund will provide seed money to launch new programs in the school, an arm of Johns Hopkins serving primarily adult, part-time students. Once a program becomes self-supporting, it will repay the seed money to the fund, providing support for other new initiatives.

The school's three divisions -- Education, Liberal Arts, and Business and Management -- already are planning projects that will receive Decker Fund support. Among the first are expected to be a project to promote career-long teacher development and education; a program to prepare health professionals in the economic, social, psychological and legal issues associated with aging; and a community leadership program to assist ministers in urban African-American communities to better serve their /congregations.

"It's especially fitting to name the Venture Capital Fund in the Deckers' honor, as they have long been strong and enthusiastic supporters of our school's mission," said Stanley C. Gabor, dean of the School of Continuing Studies. "The Decker Fund is critically important to our ability to identify and respond to the educational needs of adults in the Baltimore-Washington region. We couldn't be more proud than to have the name of Decker permanently associated with our school."

Alonzo Decker, a trustee emeritus of Johns Hopkins University, has served on the university's board since 1968. During the mid-1970s, he chaired the Hopkins Hundreds campaign and, in the late 1980s, he was honorary chairman of the Campaign for Johns Hopkins. Both were very successful. Decker was awarded the university Milton S. Eisenhower Medal for Distinguished Service in 1983.

He and his wife now live near Chestertown, Md.

With the Decker gift, commitments to the Johns Hopkins Initiative have reached $379 million, 42 percent of the institutions' overall goal for a campaign scheduled to continue until 2000. Commitments for endowment and capital needs -- the primary focus of the campaign -- stand at $259 million, 49 percent of the target of $525 million.

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